Zizi Sparks: Covid-19 coronavirus tracer app usage needs to become habit

Record keeping is now mandatory for busy places and large gatherings at all alert levels. Photo / NZME

OPINION

When a snap lockdown was announced last week, we knew what to do.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern gave us less than six hours to get prepared for alert level 4. People panicked - we are only human - and stocked up on necessities, but on Wednesday morning when people woke up in lockdown we knew what to do.

Many of us can work from home, we can send one person to the supermarket and exercise locally. We've done it before and we can do it again.

Until last week, there had been 478 days since all of New Zealand was at alert level 4 at the same time.

Now, we find ourselves back where we were last year.

For most of us, lockdowns seem to be like walking or laughing. Muscle memory has taken over.

Throughout the many stories we've done in the past week, talking to people from a range of industries and businesses, there has been a common theme.

Many people are saying "we've done this before, we can do it again" and they are right.

But there is a new muscle pattern we need to learn.

At the weekend, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced mandatory record-keeping would be brought in for busy places and large gatherings at all alert levels.

The order will apply at places like cafes, restaurants, bars, casinos and concerts, aged care and healthcare facilities, barbers, exercise facilities, nightclubs, libraries, courts, local and central government agencies, and social service providers with customer service counters.

The measure is a step further to ensure people are tracking their movements in case of an outbreak. It will mean contact tracing will be fast and accurate.

There are many people who will already be logging where they go either manually or using the app. There are others who forget. Maybe they have a renewed focus when a case is discovered that quickly wanes when things go back to "normal".

Traditionally, community cases see spikes in tracer app usage.

In July last year, there were almost 600,000 scans. In August, when Auckland moved to alert level 3, it rose to more than 30 million, and in September there were more than 50 million scans.

By last month this had more than halved to 20.7 million scans in one month. That works out to 670,484 a day - abysmal for a team of 5 million.

We can all do better. This time, we can't let our scanning patterns wane.

Whatever the alert level, scanning using the tracer app needs to become muscle memory.

Lives and freedom depend on it.